Electronic games may be provided in a variety of ways. An electronic game generally requires some form of software, firmware, or the like, running on a computing device, and may be provided solely through such software, e.g., on a dedicated game device, personal computer, etc., or through an online game service provided to a computer, set top box (STB) connected to a television, handheld computer, cellular telephone, etc. For example, online game services may provide access to games via real-time or near-real time communications with a remote server. Further, a user may be able to download client gaming software to a computing device through the online game service. Users of a game service having similar devices on which the gaming software has been installed may be able to play a game together.
It is possible to subscribe to more than one game service. For example, a user may access various game services through a number of devices, such as a mobile phone, a computer, and content processing device such as a STB that provides content to a television, video monitor, etc. To access a game service, a user generally must provide authentication information such as a login identifier and password. When a user utilizes more than one game service, the user generally needs to provide separate authentication information for each service. A particular game may be offered for multiple client devices, although a user generally must purchase the game separately for each device. Further, a user who wishes to play a game on more than one user device cannot store a state a game session on a first device, and subsequently load the state to a game session on another device. That is, online gaming systems generally require that a user be uniquely identified with a single device, or at least a single type of device, and do not allow a particular user to play a game at different times from multiple devices, or at least from multiple types of devices (e.g., personal computer, cellular telephone, handheld computer, etc.). Thus, if a user saves a game on one device, the user cannot continue the game on a different device.
Additionally, a user of one type of device is generally unable to participate in a multi-player game with a user of a different device. Different devices may provide different graphics capabilities, different amounts of memory, different processing capabilities, different speeds of connections to an online service, etc.